Chemistry Over Contracts: How Trust Beats Tactics in Media Buying

If you think winning in 2026 is about better creatives or smarter AI prompts, think again. In this interview, a media buyer who started at 17 breaks down why infrastructure beats hooks, why sales is the ultimate skill, and how to actually break through the scaling ceiling. We sat down with Stefan Domanovic, Business Development Manager at Aurora Group, to unpack the lessons behind his journey. Enjoy the read.

Describe yourself in six words: three words for who you are as a person, and three words for who you are in business.

Person:

• Social

• Chill

• Fun

Business:

• Fixer

• Adaptive

• Dedicated

You started your career in media buying at 17 — super early. What got you into it, and what made you start so young?

I saw some YouTube tutorials and wanted to get into it. I started going to a local Chinese store where they sell toys, gadgets, basically everything, and I started buying small quantities in bulk and selling them via paid ads in Serbia. It made me some money so I continued doing that before shifting to agency focus.

Walk us through the early days of building your agency. What were the biggest lessons you learned from that journey? Looking back now, what would you do differently?

Ahh, it would be support and good banking. The easiest part for me was to get clients but I couldn't support them properly as I was basically a one-man show. Later on I hired some friends to help out which weren’t much, so I sold it to the current company where I work now.

What media buying or business skills would you tell beginners to focus on in 2026?

Sales, in my opinion, is the most important skill. Sure, you can set up an ad but if it doesn't have a good hook/offer/creative, it's going to flip.

What are the things you just can’t delegate — and why? How do you handle delegation?

I can’t delegate trust. For me business is based on chemistry and personality, instead of looking at the people as money bags. I always try to connect with them even if they aren't going to buy. I go to conferences to have fun and meet people, not hard sell.
Also, I give my people a lot of freedom. I’m not interested in hovering or micromanaging the "how." But the second I think a project is drifting off course or the vibe is shifting, I’ll swoop in to course-correct.

From your experience, what are the most common mistakes people make in media buying and business — and how do you avoid them?

Not properly tracking. It was a big issue for me in the beginning. I find a winning product, it performs well, first week — 100 sales, I up the budget but the sales aren't there. Instead of shutting down the ad, changing creative, I left it riding until it spent the budget and got 0 sales which meant I was right back at the beginning with no profit on that product.

Tell us about your most expensive leadership lesson. The one that actually cost the company money or reputation. How did you learn from it?

As I said before, it was a one-man show with my agency and the support sucked, I took on more than I could chew, so clients left disappointed with it. I learned that you shouldn't over promise but actually promise what you can deliver. Even if the client doesn't proceed with what you’re offering, it's better than getting them onboarded and then leaving 2 weeks later because it's not what you said. It will save you a lot of drama in the future.

Please, explain why infrastructure is actually more important than specific campaigns or hooks?

Hooks are great but with bad infrastructure it really doesn't matter. Let's say you’re using personal accounts and you find a winning product that you want to scale. So, the hook is working perfectly, and that's when you realise that you have a daily spending limit or that a red notification pops up, or that an ad account is banned for no reason. It happens a lot. With infrastructure you don't have to worry about bad results, bans or daily spending limits, so your hook can perform as it should.

Both are important but you can't expect one to work without the other.

How could someone break through the ceiling and go global? Like, moving from the ordinary 'local shop standard BM' to actually playing on the world stage?

The only way right now is to get onboarded with an agency like Aurora, which has been on the market for 5 years now and knows all the ins and outs. With their Agency Level BM, which has the highest tier of trust with Meta you’re designated for success.

Everyone talks about Google, TikTok, Meta as the main traffic sources. But for a beginner, those platforms are tough — crazy competition, high CPCs. Are there any alternative traffic sources you'd recommend to get a foot in the door?

Yes, we have a good number of clients shifting to native such as Taboola, Outbrain and MediaGo.

Is it even possible — or worth it — to start in 2026 without using AI? Why?

It is possible but AI right now is a cheat code, you should definitely use AI and adapt to this era.

What verticals, niches, or products actually make sense to get into right now? Based on what you're seeing, what's not completely overheated yet and still converting well? Where's the smart place to scale budgets in 2026?

What's really hot right now is nutra, telehealth and GLP-1 offers. We are seeing ad spends in millions on Meta for those offers. Paired with our US based BM it's like a match made in heaven.

How often do you restructure ad accounts and campaigns? Do you have a rule, like 'refresh everything once a month'?

Fewer campaigns = More data per ad set.

More data = The algorithm learns faster.

Faster learning = You can go back to ignoring the "data" and trusting the system.

Last one — imagine you only had $1,000 to spend and one mission: find a goldmine. What would you actually do today?

Stop planning, find someone with a problem right now, and spend your money being the first person to show them the solution. After you’re successfully done, find more people with that problem and repeat it.